The Hazard Chronicles

Evelyn is going through a stage. Please tell me this is a stage. Yes, it must be a stage, and she will soon grow out of it.

Our daughter hates clothes. There- I said it. At an age where many toddlers start becoming obsessed with playing dress-up, our sweet little girl would rather run around stark naked. When we try to put clothes on her she resists with an intensity that can only be described as impressive. And it isn’t so much the modesty issue that we are concerned about- after all, she is only two. But the thing is that she is not yet housebroken. Rachel walked into her room the other day to find Evelyn gleefully running around in the nude with poop smeared up to her waist and all over on the carpet where she had removed her diaper. We don’t know what to do. We have to plan her outfits based on their ease of removal- in other words, no more zippers or snaps (she hasn’t yet mastered buttons). Tight-waisted jeans have become the norm. When this isn’t possible- church dresses for instance- we have resorted to heavy duct-tape reinforcements. Yes, we duct-taped her. We have to use heavy duty scissors to change these diapers, but it gets the job done.

This week a major project for us was putting together the printed version of The Hazard Chronicles for last year. This is the third year we have done this and it is always so much fun going back and reading the posts and looking at the pictures. It does a pretty good job of providing us with a “family journal,” seeing as we post almost every week, and I think it will be fun for our kids to look back on some day and read about these early years.

On Saturday we went to a large indoor garage sale for kid’s stuff. It was at a school and there were vendors covering the entire floor of the gym with hardly any room to walk between isles let alone navigate a double stroller without running down some poor unsuspecting stranger. The vendors also spilled out into the hallways and all the way back to the cafeteria where the larger items were being sold (cribs, swings, high chairs, etc.). It was a good time and we did pretty well, getting eleven items for a total of fifteen dollars. Evelyn got two new pairs of shoes - one of them being cowboy boots- a dress, and some cute pants. Adalie got two dresses, and Jackson got some cute shirts. It is really fun to shop when everything only costs a dollar or two!

That afternoon we went to Whole Foods. We never buy anything there, but we go periodically just for the free samples and to watch all of the health-crazed organo-people buying their six dollar stocks of celery. Seriously, if you really want to be health conscious, invest in a gym pass. Or even better, don’t; just go outside and play instead. I honestly think that there is enough money spent at Whole Foods on any given day to both save the rain forest and solve the world’s hunger problem and still have change to spare. And what does “all natural” actually mean anyway? I saw some “all natural” jelly beans on sale for Easter and couldn’t help but wondering what a jelly bean plant looks like. It must be very rare, because these jelly beans were about 8 dollars for a normal sized bag. Ridiculous. I need to go to Aldi.

Today we went to Eggshelland. We’ve written about this once before on the blog, but I will do a quick recap. Every year here in Cleveland there is this old couple who decorate their front yard in egg shells- like 33,000 of them. It is pretty impressive to think of the amount of time spent on this project, and sort of neat to see in person. Apparently they are gaining some recognition for their efforts too, since “Eggshelland the Movie” is now available on DVD. They were even featured on the front page of the English Language Newspaper in Japan. “Look what the Americans are up to now!.”

Well, that’s about it for this week. Here’s a bunch of pictures:

Eggshelland

The highly coveted Red Dog

Olives! Oh yea- and Evelyn is wearing Jackson's shirt.

Evelyn totally has a crush on this boy. So much that she sometimes whispers his name in her sleep. "Josh...Josh..." It's very cute- and a little obsessive- actually, sort of scary.

This was cute: Jackson was crying and suddenly Adalie looks over with this very concerned face, as if she was thinking "oh no, my brother is in distress!"

And this is Adalie's new thing. You can do it too- First, wrinkle up your face. Ok, now breathe in and out through your nose as fast and as loud as you possibly can. With a little bit of practice you can be as cool as she is.

When she does decide to wear clothes she goes all out- this is after she got herself ready for a trip to the store: Red striped socks, Jackson's red pants (that he has grown out of), and a pink polka dot shirt. Look out world, here we come! I think that half of the people who saw her thought "what horrible parents to dress their child like that," and the other half thought "what great parents to let her dress herself."